Knowledge Base

Resetting an Office 365 user password (for Office 365 admins)

This article is intended for use by Office 365 administrators.

As an Office 365 administrator, you can reset passwords for users who forgot their passwords. You may reset a password for a single user or for multiple users. The passwords you assign are temporary, and users must change the password the next time they sign in.

This article contains the following sections.

Signing in to your Office 365 account

To sign in to your Office 365 account,

  1. Open a web browser and, in the Address box, enter the following URL, https://www.office.com/.

The Office 365 sign-in page opens.

  1. Enter your username and password.
  2. Click Sign in.
  3. The Office 365 admin center opens on the DASHBOARD.

You are now signed in to your Office 365 account and, provided you have administrator privileges, you may proceed to add an email alias to a user account.

Resetting a password for a single user

To reset a password for a single user account, proceed as follows.

  1. From your Office 365 dashboard, click the app launcher icon, and then click Admin.

  1. From the left hand navigation pane, click USERS, then click Active Users.

The ACTIVE USERS page opens.

  1. From the list of active users, tick the check box next to the required user.

Details of the selected user appear in the right hand pane.

  1. In the user details on the right hand pane, click RESET PASSWORD.

The Reset password page opens.

  1. Complete entries on this page as follows:
    1. Send results in email - To send the temporary password to yourself, or other people, ensure the associated checkbox is ticked, and your email address is in the textbox.

Note:
You can send the temporary password to up to five recipients. If you want to send the passwords to more than one user, enter the email addresses separated by semicolons.

  1. Make this person change their password the next time they sign in – Tick this checkbox to ensure that the person receiving the temporary password must change their password the next time they sign in.
  1. Click Reset.

Office 365 creates a temporary password, which is emailed to the email addresses identified in Step 4 above. The temporary password is shown on the Reset password page.

  1. Click Close.

Note:
The email with the user name and temporary password has a subject line: New or modified user account information. If you don't see the email right away, wait a few minutes. It can take a little while for changes to go across all the services in Office 365.

 

Resetting passwords for multiple users

To reset passwords for multiple user accounts at the same time, first sign in to your Office 365 account (See, Signing in to your Office 365 account), then proceed as follows.

  1. Follow Step 1 and Step 2 of, Resetting a password for a single user.

The ACTIVE USERS page opens.

  1. On the ACTIVE USERS page, tick the checkboxes associated with each of the multiple users requiring password rest.

In the right hand pane, options appear that apply to all of the selected users.

  1. In the right hand pane, click RESET PASSWORD.

The Reset password page appears.

  1. Complete entries on this page as follows:
    1. Send results in email - To send the temporary password to yourself, or other people, ensure the associated checkbox is ticked, and your email address is in the textbox.

Note:
You can send the temporary password to up to five recipients. If you want to send the passwords to more than one user, enter the email addresses separated by semicolons.

  1. Make the selected users change their password the next time they sign in – Tick this checkbox to ensure that the users receiving the temporary password must change their password the next time they sign in.
  1. Click Reset.

Office 365 creates temporary passwords for each of the multiple users. These are emailed to the email addresses identified in Step 4 above. The temporary passwords are shown on the Reset password page.

  1. Click Close.

Note:
The emails with the user name and temporary password has a subject line: New or modified user account information. If you don't see the emails right away, wait a few minutes. It can take a little while for changes to go across all the services in Office 365.